Iran vowed to halt enriching uranium if Western powers agree to a nuclear fuel swap deal it inked with Turkey and Brazil, a Turkish newspaper on Thursday quoted Turkey's foreign minister as saying. The assurance came after Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki held talks with his Turkish and Brazilian counterparts Ahmet Davutoglu and Celso Amorim on Sunday in Istanbul, Milliyet daily reported.

In May, Turkey and Brazil brokered a deal under which Iran agreed to send 1,200 kilogrammes of low-enriched uranium to Turkey to be supplied at a later date with high-enriched uranium by Russia and France for the Tehran reactor. "An important message given by Mottaki ... is that if the Tehran agreement comes to pass and they obtain the fuel they need for the Tehran research reactor, they will not need to continue enriching uranium to 20 percent," Davutoglu was quoted by Milliyet.

"Important progress will be made with regards to enrichment" if there is agreement between Iran and the United States, Russia and France on the fuel swap deal, he added.